This is an application for a continuing SCORE Program at New Mexico State University (NMSU), Las Cruces. A goal of NMSU is to expand research at the institution for participation by ethnic minority students who desire to pursue careers in the biomedical science disciplines. The proposed SCORE Program has as its goals: (i) To transition, within the next four years, 74% of the investigators of regular SCORE subprojects in this application to competition for R01 funding from NIH. (ii) To enhance within the next four years, the publication records of all investigators of SCORE subprojects, who are in their second cycle of funding, to a minimum of 33% more research manuscripts per year in peer-reviewed, refereed journals. (iii) To significantly improve the capabilities of NMSU to conduct biomedically-relevant research through development of core research facilities. (iv) To improve the capacity of NMSU to self-evaluate, assess, and monitor the SCORE Program for the purpose of institutional self-study, program review, support of MORE Program missions, and internal improvement of research management. This application contains research proposals for nineteen research subprojects and three pilot subprojects. Disciplines represented among these proposals include Agronomy, Animal Science, Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Microbiology and Psychology. The research topics of proposed projects include: mitosis and cytokinesis in animal cells, sensory organogenesis during inner ear development, genomic interactions of the growth hormone axis and leptin, pathogenicity in symbiotic vibrios, transcription factors in myogenic cells of electric fish, translational control of hepatitis C virus, adaptations of pigeons and rats to hypoxia, transmission of the pathogen, Cryptosporidium parvum, bacteriocide tolerance of Staphylococcus aureus, regulation of glutamine synthetase, programmed cell death studied by RNAi, electric and mechanical properties of bio-macromolecules, metal ion chelators for biomedical applications, high-valence iron complexes as models for non-heme iron proteins, chemical synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals, transcription regulation of secondary metabolism, organic synthesis of novel heterocyclic and aromatic compounds, transcriptional profiling of drought and salt tolerance in plants, selective binding of enantiomers by clays, and infant learning gauged by cortisol and behavioral synchrony. This SCORE Program will continue a 29-year MBRS Program which has advanced 351 minority students (approximately 81% of B.S.-graduated participants) to post-baccalaureate training, 72 earning Ph.D. degrees, since 1974.